The Book of Zargo Zar the Sage

One of the artifacts that the archivists at Parn Tandalorn are most keenly interested in locating, and one which has so far totally eluded magical location attempts, is an ancient book of spells and lore concerning the Elemental Gods, by an Old One scholar named Zargo Zar the Sage.

The book was written by a wizened academic over many, many years.  It reads like a chronicle, but at times is hard to follow, because over the time it was being written, Zargo Zar was slowly going mad.  It details the growth of the Old Ones, hints at their origins (created by a forgotten entity, that the Sage refers to as "the Spirit of Man") and also the fascination that so many of them had with the Elemental Gods.

The few excerpts that have survived discuss spells to summon servitors of the Elemental Gods, and also spells to ward off them.  More often, these are referred to in carvings and remnants that are found in other Old One artifacts and documents.  One of the things that supposedly exists is the Lay of Ba'a Zarn - which is an epic poem talking about how Ba'a Zarn, the Builder, battled a powerful entity allied with the Earth Weaver.  The entity was named Corruption, and supposedly it was not able to be slain, but it was trapped, beneath the Great River.  The Archivists at Parn Tandalorn have debated, for many decades (centuries) whether this was figurative, or if the Great River (which was constructed by Ba'a Zarn the Builder) was really built as a prison for Corruption.  Without the book it is hard to know.

Another portion of the book, that supposedly survived, is the Sage talking about the Lord of Fire and his minions.  This has been mentioned, in (presumed) heiroglyphs carved on a tablet embedded into the side of the Altar of the Old Ones (in the far south of Bartaloo region), so although not much is known about the construction of Altar, the Book of Zargo Zar either was in existence before the Altar was built, or came about at around the same time.

Locating the book, or even part of it - excerpts, spells, poems - would make for an admirable gift to the Archivists, but it also might help to save the world.  The ancient book, the Earnish-Amantic has a number of items in it relating to the Lady of the Air (another of the Elemental gods).  These are all taken from, and reference, the book of Zargo Zar.

Wiifandra- Old One Mistress of Ba'a Zarn the Builder

A little known figure from the era of the Old Ones is that of the mistress of the last king of the old ones, Wiifandra.

From the sketchy accounts that still survive, and those that have been pieced together by the Archivists at Parn Tandalorn - mostly from surviving images and translated texts inside ruined sites of the Old Ones, it appears that Wiifandra was imbued with great magic powers, but that she sometimes disagreed with her consort, Ba'a Zarn the Builder, especially on matters concerning the Elemental gods.

Images that have survived that depict Wiifandra, depict her in one of two ways.  Within Old One sites, she is shown riding in a very large chariot (befitting her large size, as of all the Old One race), and it is being pulled by two gargantuan cats, similar (and probably the same) as the great plains cats (of the Shattered Plains) that are allied with, and ridden by, the Aublan Cat Riders.

The Archivists at Parn Tandalorn have surmised that one of the reasons for Ba'a Zarn to have build the King's Highway, was for the purpose of Wiifandra, and others of his clan, to be able to ride their chariots up and down the length of the Valley.

The other depiction of Wiifandra, is that of a powerful sorceress, aiding the Shagmen of the Darkearth Plains against the coming of the Storm King Barbarians.  These images are amongst the oldest of the surviving images in old settlements, and the barrow mounds of Jarls, among the Storm King Barbarians.  In such images, she is shown assisting the Shagmen against the Storm King Barbarians.  Curiously, in the images, the Shagmen are often depicted as being more sophisticated and advanced than they appear today.  In modern times (approximately 1500 W.M.) the Shagmen are quite primitive, much like our modern concept of a Neanderthal man.  And yet in the imagery that survives, they are depicted as tool users empoying quite sophisticated weapons and armor.  This may have been an attempt by the early Storm King Barbarian Skalds to show their enemies as being more powerful and advanced than they actually were; or the Skalds might not have been present at the battles, and only drew warriors in the way they were familiar; or (most intriguingly) something might have happened to the Shagmen from those earliest times, almost two millenia ago, when Wiifandra first fought for them, and then she disappeared (shortly after the disappearance of the other Old Ones).

Wiifandra, helping the Shagmen (right) against the Storm King Barbarians (left)

 It is rumored that as the advances of the Storm King Barbarians grew more and more intense, with their fleets of dragonships coming out of the north, down the various rivers out of the Destriel Mountains (especially the Greywater), that the Shagmen were beaten back.  A single lone strong point survived, and this was around the cliff-side Solitude of Aether - the last home that Wiifandra used before departing the Valley.  It was located along the southern shoreline of the Great River, as it passed next to the Jazzan Mountains, under the Falls of Arning.  There was a transplanted colony of Shagmen living in caves near the River, and they served and worshipped Wiifandra.

The Solitude of Aether, along the southern shoreline of the Great River

When Wiifandra departed, many of her loyal Shagmen departed with her, and the rest were changed in some way.  Some Archivists claim that they became the Shagmen we know of today, in order to hide the memories of Wiifandra and her magic, others say that those located at the Solitude of Aether were changed into something else.

The biggest secret about Wiifandra, and where she departed from her consort, Ba'a Zarn, was that she was a completely devoted worshiper of the elemental god, The One Beneath the Waves.  She not only worshpped the sleeping god, but she used her considerable magic to create and contact followers of his, and also to imbue the knowledge into the Shagmen.  This is not known, currently, to the Archivists, or to anyone in the Valley.

When she left, some of the things that Wiifandra left behind, were a number of spells related to the worship of The One Beneath the Waves, as well as contacting and serving the servitor races of that elemental god.  Also, she left behind some of her personal magic items.  She left behind the Staff of Aether, the Bracers of Deep Knowledge, and the Tiara of Darkness.  The location of these is not known, but they are each of a powerful (artifact) level.  Many of her spells are assumed to be located in copies of the Book of Zargo Zar the Sage.

Parn Tandalorn - The Great Archive

Near the headwaters of the Tandalorn River there is a strange and magical community, high in the mountains, that is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge.  This is the site of the fantastic Great Library of Parn Tandalorn.  It was settled by a group of monks and priests from the Olmart Empire that accompanied the first settlers to come into the Valley, south of the great river.  They brought with them soldiers, as well as their own families, seeking to establish a new community, in the strange and dangerous land of the Valley.

Parn Tandalorn

It was here, with the various artifacts and ruined sites of the Old Ones, that the Archivists thought they could study and make sense of what the world was like before the advent of Man.  To understand what the Archivists (the original settlers of the Great Library and the community there) understood about man, it is important to understand how they viewed Man's place in the world.  This was, of course, very different than the understanding that the inhabitants, with their knowledge of the three goddesses, and some of the subjected peoples of the old empire - such as the Lass Indol and their goddesses of the Seasons.  The old orders of the Olmart empire see the coming of man as some fulfillment of the element of magic.  The old races were not enough - the Elves themselves are magic, the Dwarves capture magic, the Saurials sing of magic, but only Man can create magic.  Hence, the element itself was responsible for bringing man into the world.  So, they came to study the Old Ones and find out what they could about them, and see whey there were passed over by Magic and why Man was chosen/birthed instead.

In coming into contact with the artifacts, and surviving learning, of the Old Ones, the Archivists learned something very, very different.  The Old Ones were enthralled, and worshipped (largely out of fear) their own elemental god.  There were immensely powerful beings, from another dimension, that were bent on the destruction of reality.  The Old Ones believed that by supplication and appeasement, they could keep them (the elemental gods) pacified until their knowledge of magic advanced to such a point that they could imprison them.  This they did, but at a cost.  Great structures were build by Ba'a Zarn the builder, in order to serve as the locks on the dimensional prisons that the elemental gods are imprisoned in.  These structures are part of the world, in the Valley, and the Archivists are beginning to learn the secrets of the Great River, the King's Highway, Fire Mountain, and the Tears of Heaven.  But not all the secrets, not yet.

The Archivists do know that after the elemental gods were imprisoned, that the young gods and goddesses of the world began to awaken - with the help of The Krunge, and Mika, and Earnissa.  Bronc and Photoss escaped, and became the two Warrior gods known as the Storm King and the Sun King, and their people (the Storm King barbarians in the north, and the Sun King barbarians in the south) have flourished, albeit the tainting of the Sun King by his diabolical mistress has led to a certain strain of chaos and evil that has suffused the culture of the Sun King barbarians.  The three goddesses have awoken, and even the forces of the seasons that the Lass Indol venerated have become goddesses.

Something else that the Archivists realize, that much of the remainder of the Valley (the Westroners, the Northerners, the Southerners and many of the non-humans) is that there is still a taint of power from the elemental gods loose in the world.  There are, in secret, and in shadow, pocket of worshipers who feel as if they can gain power, by serving the four sleeping horrors.  Some, the mad and those deranged by evil, see the bringing about the destruction of the world through the doings of elemental god magic, as a desirable goal.  These are the evil forces that the Archivists are arranged against.

Alas, however, the Archivists, in their quest for magic and knowledge, and their desire to exist as a separate community, has led them into a secluded and isolationist state.  They live, alone in their community of towers, schools, halls of study, and dens of magic, without any real thought to intervention in the outside world.  Let the petty barons fight over lands and holdings.  Let the Elves bicker over the boundaries between Faery and the world.  Let the Dwarves hollow out all the mountains, and make war against the orcs and goblins they find there.  The Archivists have much more important things to do - at Parn Tandalorn.

Clearwater - River Jarl Steading (6)

Near the point where the Greywater River passes under a great arch, to run beneath the King's Highway, there stands two fascinating structures. The first, of course is the tall, wide raised up artificial ridge that the King's Highway is built on.  As detailed elsewhere, this artificiality was built by the Old Ones, probably by Ba'a Zarn the Builder.  Up against this raised up ridgeline rises the small castle (steading) of Clearwater.  It is a small castle (measured against the Westroner standard for such things - even a wealthy knight in one of the Baronies might have a larger castle), but it's location (right up against the King's Highway) makes it notable.  Add to this the facts that the upper levels of the steading have a commanding view of the highway up on the ridge, and that the rocky knob that the steading is built on is surrounded by a pool, requiring small (defensible) foot bridges for access, and it is a very important (and defensible - at least against attack by ground forces) strong hold.

Clearwater, surrounded by its protective pool,
and built in the shadow of the King's Highway

But it was pointed out that there are two fascinating structures here - the first being the Clearwater steading (called simply, Clearwater), but the other is the Gazing House.  Up on the raised up mound that the King's Highway runs along, in this area, there is a peculiar structure built of Amberstone.  It is very much like an open-balcony'd and terraced villa, similar to those built in the southern country, but it is ancient.  Certainly built by the Old Ones, it is not known what its original function is.

In the center of the Gazing House, which consists of apartments and balconies, built in a square, around a central open plaza - there is a large (12 feet across) brazier with a pool of water in it that always seems to be catching a drip of water in the center.  There is no source for the drip, just a constant trickle outward from where such would fall.  It has been noted that the brazier, and its contents of water, have magical properties, and once every two months, when all three moons are visible within the water of the brazier, the dripping temporarily halts, and it is said that you can see the future by gazing into the smooth clear pool of water.  In the dug out halls and chambers deep into the mound of the King's Highway that the Gazing House is built on, there are fissures and cracks that open up to deep underground caverns and stretch endlessly.  Here, there seems to be a large culture of lizard men that have a curious rite of shamans worshiping the One Beneath the Waves, and seeking to bring him up out of his slumber to destroy the surface world.

Gazing House, looking down on Sordling,
and the northern run of the Greywater from up on the King's Highway.

The current Jarl of Clearwater is Tewar Dorfsson.  There is a nearby port town called Sordling, built along the Greywater, that serves as the home of the dragon ship fleet of the Clearwater steading. The Huscarls, and many leading members of the household and even fyrd leaders all live (with their families) in the Clearwater stronghold, but most of the rest of the steading's population live in small agricultural communities around the steading and Sordling.  All of them, however, are north of the King's Highway.  There is an uneasy truce with Rookroost, and almost a constant state of feuding with viking parties from Mead Hall

The description of the City of Ohn Ohnan was originally part of this article, when it was written during the Week of Adventure Locations.

History of the World - Valley of the Old Ones

The Valley, of course, is part of a much larger world.  This is a short version of the history of that world, according to the Archivists of Parn Tandalorn.

Once, a long time before there was time, the world had no music.  Without music, there was no magic.  Without magic, there were no numbers.  But one by one, through the strength of their will, the elemental gods of the Old Ones awoke.  Their names are now long forgotten, but in the course of things, each of them had a number.  The first, the lord of fire, helped to bring the rest into being.  They came in order, the Lord of Fire, the Lady of Air, Earth Weaver and the One beneath the Waves.  From them the rest of the gods of the Old Ones came, each after its own element.  Now their numbers were many, and  from this they could wring out all manner of magic.

The magic allowed the gods to create, each after his or her own fashion, the things that would live on the earth.  Plants, Animals, Fish, Birds.  Even the Old Ones.  They were created by the Lord of Fire and the Lady of Air directly, and held sway over all other things.  Through their ordering, the magic gave way to music, and now the world was complete.

After a time, a king arose amongst the Old Ones named Ba'a Zarn the Builder.  Ba'a Zarn and his people built all manner of fantastic cities and wonders.  Some still stand - the Sky Lake of Cittar and the Great Block.  Some are long gone.  Many were deep under the earth, still more were among the clouds.  One of the amazing feats of Ba'a Zarn was the construction of the Great River, which completely crosses the face of the world from one end to the other.  Along with the Great River is the King's Highway.  Much of the King's Highway is still in existence, and these two wonders - the River and the Highway - run through the middle of the Valley of the Old Ones.

It is said that the Valley itself was once a garden of the Old Ones, where they would come to take their ease and talk with all of the creatures of the gods.  Certainly they left behind some fantastic structures in the mountains and on the plains of the valley.  Many these days shun such spots, as they are the home of amazing creatures and inscrutable magic, but others seek them out as spots of adventure and fantastic treasures.